My trip to London and Paris was absolutely amazing! Paris was just mind-blowing! The food was amazing, the sites were amazing, the people were…great. lol. I don’t speak French, so I don’t really know if they are amazing, but everyone was so friendly and happy and awesome. I definitely want to come back, probably in the spring or summertime so I can catch the flowers and the gardens of Versailles. But in the meantime, let me give you some pictures to hold you over!

It started out better than perfect. I got a ride to the airport and arrived super early. I discovered that my flight was delayed by half an hour, but Cely was there and we went to grab something to eat. Eli and Frankie showed up soon afterward and we headed over to board the plane. Lo and behold, I see some girls I went to high school with and spent the wait chatting about life in general.

We get on the plane and managed to get seats next to each other (which is amazing since the plane was packed!). I end up sitting next to this really interesting guy and spent the trip having deep conversations about which celebrity is hotter and Sudoku. More

Lisa Tawn Bergren’s new YA series, River of Time, is romantic, historical fiction in which the plucky heroine doesn’t have to fear a vampire’s bite but must still fight for her life.

In Waterfall, American teenager Gabi Betarrini accidently finds herself in Fourteenth-Century Italy . . . Knights. Swords. Horses. Armor. And Italian hotties. Most American teens want an Italian vacation, but the Betarrini sisters have spent every summer of their lives there with their archaeologist parents. Stuck on yet another hot, dusty dig, they are bored out of their minds… until they place their hands atop handprints in an ancient tomb and find themselves catapulted into the Fourteenth Century and in the middle of a fierce battle between knights bent on killing one another. More

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When I graduated NYU I knew that I didn’t want to go into the corporate world, but it wasn’t until speaking to Cely that I realized that nonprofit was where I was going to end up. I went on Idealist and I found a job.

I was one of the lucky few who managed to find something even in the economy we were in. Granted, they didn’t pay as much as I thought I would need to survive but it was a paycheck and I needed to get out of the house. I couldn’t stay without work anymore! I told myself that two years was the limit. After two years I would find something else and move on. After my first year though, I decided that my job was pretty great (minus a few people and bumps along the way). And that maybe I would stay a little longer than two years.

But true to my nature, a week after my second anniversary and the announcement that Dee got a new job…I was ready to start looking again – maybe. I applied to one job and a few days later I got an email asking me to come in for an interview and lo and behold, I discover that the woman I am replacing was at the wedding that I went to in San Fransisco at the end of June. It is such a small world!

After my second interview, my references were checked and I was offered a job. I cannot describe the feelings that are going through me right now. I am part excited, part nervous. I love the people I work with, I have made amazing friends along the way and wouldn’t change them for ANYTHING in the world. And now I have to start over without the support of knowing everyone else in my department is new at this too.

This is an amazing opportunity and comes at a time in my life where I need to start fresh and maybe even a little new. I just hope that I can live up to the upgrade and continue to experience such good fortune and keep the Blessing God has deemed me worthy of.

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Last Fall, Deedee, Dany, Cely and I went to Dublin, Ireland to go vacation with Eliana. Eliana never made it, but the 4 of us had an amazing time. We spent the first night hitting all the liqour factories: Guinness and Jameson Irish Whiskey. I’ve decided I’m not a fan of Guinness, which will be a problem when I move there, but I do think that Jameson is probably the best whiskey out there! We planned to go out that night…yeah, that didn’t happen. We came to our apartment and knocked out.

The next day we barely made it to our tour bus on time! But we did, and were on our way to Wicklow and Glendalough. The tour guide was awesome! If you ever go to Ireland and want to go outside of Dublin and are looking for a tour company, Wild Wicklow Tour is absoloutely a MUST! Not only did we stop at a very good eatery on the way up there, but the tour guide was knowledgeable and funny and had us singing at the top of our lungs by the time we were returning to the city.

That night, we made it out to the Temple Bar District and I must say, the pubs are fantastic. We meet some College students and they were excellent company. Afterwards, we did what I expressly said we wouldn’t…hopped into a car with stranger and headed out of the city. It was unbearably creepy and I had flashbacks of watching Taken…obviously I did not take good enough notes, cuz there I was, sitting next to Cely, in a country I didn’t know with people I didn’t know. I wish I could say it would never happen again, but that’s probably a lie!

Our last day there, Dany had to leave early and so the rest of us had an English breakfast (much like an American breakfast, except with scones…go figure) and then headed to the museum to do something else on my list. Lunch consisted of an excellently made Irish stew and once again, we passed out.

Later that night, we managed to find a pub playing the Superbowl and sat around and just enjoyed being in Dublin and with each other.

My experience wouldn’t have been half as wonderful without my friends. Dublin is definitely on my list of places I must visit again. Perhaps in the summer next time.